State EBT panel nixes slew of major reforms

Republicans vow legislative fight in 2013

Chris CassidyFriday, December 21, 2012

Credit: Unknown

Sen. Robert Hedlund

Credit: Unknown

STATE Sen.
ROBERT Hedlund

prevnext

comments

The panel reviewing the EBT system took a pass on major reforms yesterday, but Republicans are promising a fight in the state Legislature in the new year to fix the abuse-ravaged system once and for all.

The EBT Cashless Commission’s final report was approved yesterday and called for more education and stricter enforcement but skipped over the toughest proposals.

“The recommendations in the report are weak and ineffective, especially considering one of them is already law,” said state Rep. Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton), one of the members of the commission composed of legislators and state advocates. “It was a missed opportunity to do some good work here and really come up with a system that works for the taxpayers and for the people of the program.”

O’Connell plans to file her own bill early next year and write her own minority report outlining failings of the EBT panel.

“I went into it a bit cynical after serving on the previous commission,” said state Sen. Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth). “I come through the process a little more cynical.”

Consulting firm The Ripples Group, hired for $100,000, issued nine ways to fix the system, ranging in magnitude from keeping the status quo (Option 1) to eliminating cash benefits altogether and setting up a way to detect the purchase of outlawed items, such as alcohol, at the point of sale (Option 9).

In the end, the commission adopted Options 2 and 3 — more education for clients, higher penalties for store owners and tougher enforcement. The state would also identify “high risk” abusers and put them on automatic cashless payments for necessities such as rent and utilities.

“Basically the only thing this report does is recommend more education for clients and more enforcement, but that’s subject to appropriation, which means it’s never going to happen,” O’Connell said.

The commission could have blocked out-of-state EBT card use or even limited cash to $100 per month.

“We don’t have data to prove misuse or to say what the amount is,” said Tiziana Dearing of Boston Rising, who served on the commission. “I have a concern that option was seeking greater enforcement on a problem we don’t know we have. And I worry about state resources in these budget times around something we don’t know is a problem.”

The Department of Transitional Assistance had no reaction yesterday.

O’Connell, meanwhile, plans to file her own bill in early 2013 requiring welfare recipients to pay their rent and utilities automatically online so the state can track whether they are paying the bills they claim to need their benefits for.

“The fact is 95 percent of the money taken out of cash, we don’t know how it’s being spent,” O’Connell said. “We need to be able to track that.”